RI needs more international experience, says Arie Sudewo
RI needs more international experience, says Arie Sudewo
JAKARTA (JP): Psychological barriers and a lack of
international experience have been blamed for Indonesia's poor
performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Indonesia chef de mission Arie Sudewo said during a media
teleconference on Monday the national athletes "were mentally
unready to challenge world-class rivals", despite the money spent
by the Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) to fund their overseas
training prior to the Games.
He said psychological obstacles had even prevented some
athletes from equaling, not to mention improving on, their
personal bests.
"Based on our latest evaluation on the athletes' performances,
we conclude that they could not reach or improve their personal
bests because they might have been too nervous when competing
against world-class athletes," Arie said from Sydney.
Sprinter John Murray is one such example, according to Arie.
The country's hope in the men's 100 meters finished sixth in his
heat, which was won by world champion and eventual gold medalist
Maurice Greene of the United States.
Murray, whose best time of 10.23 was set in the National Games
in June in Surabaya, East Java, managed only to clock a time of
10.68, well off Greene's semifinal qualifying time of 10.31.
Arie also said nontechnical problems affected women's diver
Shenny Ratna Amelia, who finished last in the preliminary round
of 10m platform event.
Smarting from the unexpected outcome, Arie said giving
athletes more opportunities to compete in international events
would help the athletes improve.
Indonesia brought 48 athletes, 23 coaches and 19 officials to
the quadrennial event. It has so far collected one gold medal,
three silvers and two bronzes from badminton and weightlifting.
The country won two golds in the Barcelona Games in 1992 and a
gold, a silver and two bronzes four years later in Atlanta.
Athletes who went out in the preliminaries and the first round
of competition in this year's Games included women's archer
Hamdiah, boxer Hermansen Ballo, men's table tennis players Anton
Suseno and Ismu Harinto, men's judoka Krisna Bayu, women's judoka
Aprilia Marzuki, women's tennis players Wynne Prakusya and Yayuk
Basuki, men's sprinter Yanes Raubaba and Erwin Heru Susanto,
women's sprinter Irene Truitje Joseph and swimmers Richard Sam
Bera, Felix Christiadi Sutanto and his twin brother Albert, Elsa
Manora Nasution and brother Muhammad Akbar Nasution and Steven
Chandra.
KONI provided Rp 6.9 billion to fund the national training
center for the Olympics. It also received financial support from
the government and sponsorships from several companies, including
McDonald's Indonesia, Samsung and PT Telekomunikasi Seluler
Indonesia.
Arie said he had asked all the athletes who were no longer
competing to watch the rest of the matches in their respective
disciplines in order to enrich their knowledge about their sports
and to improve their technique. (ivy)